Change of Makeup

Those of you that know me, know that I'm redheaded.  Or I used to be before the gray started taking over.  When you're a redhead, you end up buying very specific makeup.  All the color on my face is painted on daily.  I am jealous of women with naturally dark eyebrows and eyelashes, but they have to shave their legs all the time.  That's the tradeoff.

For years, I've used the same eyebrow color.  Instead of using a pencil and trying to draw in something resembling a brow, I use a powder that can be brushed on.  It allows me to just color in what pale hair I have.  For the past twenty years or longer, I have made a special trip to Merle Norman to buy their 'ash blonde' eyebrow color.  It's a small compact with a tiny brush and costs about $28.00.  It lasts so long, I've never complained about the price, or the special trip.  Until now.

I made my trip to find the nearest Merle Norman store in California.  I asked for the 'ash blonde' color and the attendant very excitedly told me they had something NEW!  I'm not sure I like change.  At least not in my eyebrows.  So, I asked her to explain it to me.  She broke open the compact and showed me where there formerly was a single bar of compressed color, now there were two.


My look must have said it all.

She explained (at length) to me that people's hair was multicolored, and so their brows should also be varied.  So, now Merle Norman is packaging two colors in a single compact.  She explained that you applied the dark color and then went back and applied 'highlights' with the lighter color.  Right.  I'm too lazy to color my hair, but I'm going to spend extra time highlighting my eyebrows.  I know women who've tatooed their eyebrows in place.  They got tired of tweezing and coloring, so they tatooed in a brow and they don't mess with it any more.  In my mind, the drawback there is being a little old lady with jet black, perfectly arched brows.  But I digress.

The Merle Norman manager allowed me to try out the new brow color at the shop.  What I found out was that one half of the compact was a color that was Way To Dark for me, and the other half was the color I wanted.  So, half as much product for the same full price packaged in a single compact.

I went ahead and bought the compact, but now that I'm getting to the bottom of my eyebrow color, I'm a little bitter.  I'm going to be throwing away a compact with a nearly untouched slab of color.  Seems so wasteful.  I should find a darker haired person with the same issue and swap compacts.

While I was at Walgreen's the other day, waiting for a prescription to be filled, I wandered down the cheap makeup aisle.  A display of brow color caught my attention.  It was powder that brushes on... just like I like it.  I looked to see if they had any pale enough for a redhead.  They did.  Guess how it's bundled?  Two brow colors, I guess for those highlights I always forget to apply; a highlight eye shadow, a mirror, a pair of tweezers, and applicators for both the brow color and the eye shadow.  All for $5.99.

Now, don't get me wrong, this new set has less actual shadow.  It's looser, not densely compacted,  so it appears to be going faster.  But for less than a quarter of the price, I'm a fan.  I think I'll go down to Walgreen's and buy all they have and just shove them in my drawer so when I run out, I can bust open the next package.  When I throw this set into the trash with all the dark powder still left, I'll have the satisfaction of only wasting $3.00, not $14.00.  Plus, tiny tweezers.

Who highlights their eyebrows anyway?  If you do, let me know.

--Sandee Wagner